The Top Black Gate Posts in November

The Top Black Gate Posts in November

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Sean McLachlan was the Black Gate MVP for November, with two articles in the Top 5: “Happy Halloween! Here’s Some Nightmare Fuel” at #3, and “Ten Ways You Know Your Evil Empire Is Doomed,” which scored the #5 slot. Hot on Sean’s heels was Ryan Harvey with two Pellucidar posts, his review of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Savage Pellucidar (#6) and the Series Wrap-Up (#10).

The most popular article last month was our survey of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword & Sorceress anthology series, which has been published semi-continuously since 1984. The post spawned at least one follow-up, a more personal look back on the series by Elizabeth Cady, to be published here in the next next few days. Coming in at #2 was Bob Byrne’s review of the film Murder on the Orient Express. Rounding out the Top Five was our look at S. A. Chakraborty’s new novel The City of Brass.

An update on Beneath Ceaseless Skies placed seventh, followed by Fletcher Vredenburgh’s review of Robert E. Howard’s The Road of Azrael. And Steven H Silver nabbed the ninth slot on the list, with his Michael Moorcock re-read “Elric and Me.”

The complete list of Top Articles for November follows. Below that, I’ve also broken out the most popular overall articles, online fiction, and blog categories for the month.

The Top 50 Black Gate posts in November were:

  1. Vintage Treasures: Sword & Sorceress, edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley
  2. The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Murder on the Orient Express
  3. Happy Halloween! Here’s Some Nightmare Fuel
  4. Future Treasures: The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty
  5. Ten Ways You Know Your Evil Empire Is Doomed
  6. Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Pellucidar Saga: Savage Pellucidar
  7. Beneath Ceaseless Skies 237 Now Available
  8. The Road of Azrael by Robert E. Howard
  9. Elric and Me
  10. Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Pellucidar Saga: Series Wrap-Up

     

  11. I Was Paper Trained by Philip K. Dick
  12. It’s Alive! Classic Horror and Sci-Fi Art from the Kirk Hammett Collection
  13. Ragnarok Publications Cancels Forthcoming Books
  14. The 4th International Science Fiction Conference, Chengdu, China, November 2017
  15. A Homecoming: Son of Mfumu by Milton J. Davis
  16. A City Eternal, Under Siege: City at the Edge of Time, by Janet & Chris Morris
  17. New Treasures: Above the Timberline by Gregory Manchess
  18. Modular: Fox Trot Plays Dungeons & Dragons
  19. A Tale from the Archonate: A Wizard’s Henchman by Matthew Hughes
  20. Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1953: A Retro-Review

     

  21. Vintage Treasures: The Best Science Fiction Novellas of the Year 1, edited by Terry Carr
  22. The First Three Laws of Robotics
  23. Piracy: It’s the Creative Ecosystem that Matters
  24. A New Twilight Zone? Maybe — And I Have a Few Requests
  25. The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in October
  26. Future Treasures: Persepolis Rising by James S. A. Corey
  27. The 2017 World Fantasy Award Winners
  28. November/December Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Now on Sale
  29. Star Kings, Virtual Reality, and Genetic Monsters: Rich Horton on Crown of Infinity by John M. Faucette/ The Prism by Emil Petaja
  30. The Finest in Modern Sword & Sorcery: The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly: Volume 2, 2011-2013

     

  31. Future Treasures: The Big Book of the Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett
  32. Postapocalyptic Adventure on the Gulf Coast: The Ship Breaker Trilogy by Paolo Bacigalupi
  33. New Treasures: Infinite Stars, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt
  34. Tom Sutton’s Creepy Things
  35. New Treasures: Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson
  36. Goth Chick News, New Treasures: Demon Freaks by J.R.R.R. (Jim) Hardison
  37. MASHED: A Korean War MASH RPG
  38. November/December 2017 Asimov’s Science Fiction Now on Sale
  39. Dark Osprey: The Shadowy Worlds of Cthulhu, Alien Bug Hunts, and a Nazi Moonbase
  40. Unify England During the Hundred Years War in Lancaster from Queen Games

     

  41. Looting is Better With Friends: Dungeon Dwellers
  42. Fantasia 2017, Day 13: Death Note: Light Up The New World
  43. The November Fantasy Magazine Rack
  44. Party Of The First Part
  45. Goth Chick News: In Hollywood, Dead Is Sometimes Better…
  46. Rube Goldberg’s Radio Robot
  47. New Treasures: The Big Book of Rogues and Villains edited by Otto Penzler
  48. Goth Chick News: King Kong Goes to Broadway
  49. Self-published Book Review: At Yomi’s Gate by John Meszaros
  50. Beneath Ceaseless Skies 239 Now Available

There were plenty of older articles popular last month as well. The 25 most popular blog posts written before November were:

  1. New Treasures: The Library of America Publishes Elmore Leonard
  2. Solitaire Adventure with Victory Point Games
  3. My Fantasia Festival, Days 5 to 7: Cold in July, The Fatal Encounter, and Huntresses
  4. Fantasia Diary 2015, Day 5: Teana: 10000 Years Later, Crimson Whale, and The Shamer’s Daughter
  5. The Return of the King (1980)
  6. Blowing the Doors Off the Barn: Expanding the Iron Fist Mythos
  7. Living it Large: How Larger Than Life Characters Work
  8. Eccentric in Retrospect: Helen Simpson’s The Woman on the Beast
  9. Return to Thieves World in Beyond Sanctuary: The Revised and Expanded Author’s Cut by Janet Morris
  10. Haunt the House: The Music and Art of Will Houlihan
  11. Adventures on Stage: Fantasy Literature’s Missing Link
  12. Heroic Fantasy with the Sharp Edge of Reality: The Sacred Band by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
  13. The Series Series: Shieldwall: Barbarians! by M. Harold Page
  14. Adventures In Gaming: The Temple Of the Sea Gods
  15. Battles with Blades and Bows, and Creatures Charming and Terrifying: Journeys, edited by Teresa Edgerton
  16. Tribulations Herculean and Tragic: Beyond Wizardwall by Janet Morris
  17. The IX by Andrew P. Weston
  18. Tempus Takes Manhattan: Janet and Chris Morris’ Tempus Unbound
  19. Part Gothic, Part Sword and Sorcery, and Part Horror: Andrew P. Weston’s Hell Bound
  20. Caught Between Rebels and the Empire’s Blackest Magic: Beyond the Veil: The Revised and Expanded Author’s Cut by Janet Morris
  21. Vintage Treasures: The Silistra Quartet by Janet Morris
  22. Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: The Skeleton Matters (Or, Why It’s Not OK to Skip Scenes in Your Third Act)
  23. Read “The Great Detective” by Delia Sherman at Tor.com
  24. The Complete Carpenter: Christine (1983)
  25. Why isn’t Conan a Mary Sue?

The Top Black Gate Online Fiction features were:

  1. An excerpt from The Sacred Band by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
  2. Tempus Unbound, edited by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
  3. Seven Against Hell” by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
  4. An excerpt from Pirates in Hell, edited by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
  5. Goat-Beard the Pirate, Part 2: Evil Angel,” by Janet Morris and Chris Morris
  6. An excerpt from The Power of the Sapphire Wand by Erika M Szabo and Joe Bonadonna
  7. An excerpt from Shards of the Glass Slipper: Queen Cinder by Roy A. Mauritsen
  8. An excerpt from Truck Stop Earth by Michael A. Armstrong
  9. An excerpt from Mouth of the Dragon by Tom Barczak
  10. A Princess of Jadh” by Gregory Bierly
  11. An excerpt from The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen
  12. The Sorrowless Thief” by Ryan Harvey
  13. Stand at Duben-Geb” by Ryan Harvey
  14. Iron Joan” by ElizaBeth Gilligan
  15. Tsathoggua” by Michael Shea
  16. Vestments of Pestilence” by John C. Hocking
  17. An excerpt from “The Mudslinger” by David Evan Harris
  18. Nero Wolfe – Stamped for Murder” by Bob Byrne
  19. The Trade” by Mark Rigney
  20. The first chapter of The Wreck of the Marissa by M Harold Page
  21. The Cremator’s Tale” by Steven H Silver
  22. Fiction Excerpt: “Tumithak of the Corridors” by Charles R. Tanner
  23. The Renunciation of the Crimes of Gharad the Undying” by Alex Kreis
  24. Awakening” by Judith Berman
  25. An excerpt from Three Ghosts in a Black Pumpkin by Erika M Szabo and Joe Bonadonna
  26. An excerpt from “The Hand That Binds” by Michael Livingston
  27. The Whoremaster of Pald” by Harry Connolly
  28. An excerpt from Soleri by Michael Johnston
  29. An excerpt from Souldrifter by Garrett Calcaterra
  30. An excerpt from Mad Shadows II by Joe Bonadonna

The top categories last month were:

  1. Editor’s Blog
  2. Vintage Treasures
  3. Books
  4. Blog Entry
  5. Art of the Genre
  6. Comics
  7. BG Staff
  8. Art
  9. Game Reviews
  10. Reviews
  11. Future Treasures
  12. Magazines
  13. Interviews
  14. Discovering Robert E. Howard
  15. Conan
  16. Black Gate Goes to Summer Movies
  17. Convention Report
  18. News
  19. Contest
  20. Pastiche
  21. Role Playing Games
  22. Pulp
  23. New Treasures
  24. Fiction
  25. Goth Chick
  26. Movies & TV
  27. Weird Western
  28. Series Fantasy
  29. Essays
  30. Obituary
  31. Paranormal Romance
  32. Rich Horton
  33. Writing
  34. Fashion
  35. Solitaire Game Reviews

The Top 50 Black Gate blog posts in October are here, and you can see all 79 posts we made in the month of November here.

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James McGlothlin

Bob Byrne! I’m getting sick of that guy at or near the top!

Just kidding! Congrats Bob! I love your posts, especially the REH and D&D focused ones.

Congrats to all the top posters!

Bob Byrne

John covered my comment – I charted without shamelessly glomming onto Robert E. Howard. Who knew?

I better come up with something Conan-related for January. Where are my 3rd Edition Conan modules from Mongoose?

(Just kidding. I know exactly where they are…)


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